On Monday January 23rd, 2023, members of staff of the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCo), disrupted flight operations by shutting down their service over sundry salary issues. The workers’ strike led to flight delays, cancellations and in extreme cases, flight rescheduling.
NAHCo, handles check-in, boarding, and ramp services for many international carriers including Delta, Turkish Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Qatar, and Air France-KLM while on the domestic scene, NAHCo handles ground handling service for Air Peace, Azman, Dana, United Nigeria.
As a result, these airlines incurred additional cost and lost whooping amounts of money to the strike while hundred of passengers were stranded as cargo aircraft couldn’t be boarded nor offloaded and those who had appointments missed them due to issues that weren’t their own fault.
For instance, foreign airlines such as Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airlines and Virgin Atlantic had to offload their staff with its cargo still on the aircraft.
Equally, a Qatar Airlines cargo aircraft which landed in the morning had it’s cargo stuck for over 2 hours because of the strike action.
However, local carrier, Air Peace, in a chat with LEADERSHIP, said the airline lost over N500million due to the industrial action, adding that the strike paralysed its operations across its large network.à
The airline stated that the ground handling company did not pre-inform them about the strike neither was a public notice issued.
“Neither NAHCO nor the striking union informed us of an impending strike. Our staff reported to work and noticed an ongoing industrial action. If we were informed beforehand, we would have conveyed same to our passengers early enough.
“Now, all morning flights and other subsequent flights have been disrupted- cancelled, delayed and rescheduled. This has cost us over N500 million as we operate over 100 flights daily. Passengers are also attacking our ground staff as they cannot fly.
“We had to notify the flying public of the strike but it is important to stress again that the action is by the staff of NAHCO, not Air Peace. It is an action against the Management of NAHCO, and Air Peace has nothing to do with it.
“We regret the impact of the disruptions on the travel plans of our passengers and implore them to desist from assaulting our staff. We are not responsible for the disruptions,” the airline stated.
A staff of United Airline who craved anonymity also disclosed to LEADERSHIP that the airline incurred additional costs such as delay packs, extra pay for crew hours and passengers wrath.
She said, “the truth is it’s not normal, at the end of the day the airlines will be left holding the ball. The airlines share delay packs which come with additional cost, the schedule is affected, people will probably fly into the night.
“So we know the implications but it’s all on the airlines’ who will bear all of these. You have to pay the crew, they are at work already and so you have to pay, the longer hours a crew stays in the aircraft, the more you have to pay. So the impact is there and it’s huge.
“And they know, this is not the first time this is happening, they did not communicate it properly to people because if people had known on Sunday, they would have made arrangements and messages would have been sent to our customers. Now, all our flights are delayed and we will bears it all,” she lamented.
However, this isn’t the first time aviation workers disruption of flight operations make passengers stranded at the airports.
In November, 2022, Union of Bi-Courtney Aviation Service Limited (BASL), did embarked on strike without prior notice because 34 workers were sacked and to drive home their griviances, they shut down the terminal, thereby, denying several thousand of passengers access to exit and access the terminal.
In the day of the strike action, airlines whose service were disrupted were Arik Air, Max Air, Azman Air, Air Peace and Ibom Airlines. They were forced to temporarily relocate to the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) after their passengers suffer untold hardship occasioned by delays.
Speaking on the incessant strike action by airline workers, , an aviation expert, Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), asked the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to caution protesting unions against denying passengers from accessing the terminal 2 of the Muritala Muhammed Airport (MMA2), Lagos.
Ojikutu, in a chat with LEADERSHIP, said the NCAA has the absolute powers and authority on civil aviation security in the airports.
He advised unions to take griviances to offices of agencies or companies and not to terminal, thereby, disrupting flight services.
Ojikutu said, “Unions blocked the entrances to the MMA2 terminal refusing passengers from getting access into the terminal to catch their flights operated by airlines and not by the terminal operator.
“It is high time the lawlessness of the unions are curtailed by the responsible authorities especially the NCAA. The NCAA in particular has the absolute powers and authority on civil aviation security in the airports. If their are Civil Aviation Laws for disruptive passengers there must be similar laws within the Airport Operational Areas (AOA) for disruptive staff and unions.”
“My knowledge and experience in aviation security tells me always that civil aviation is always on the top lists of targets for attacks by the terrorists. What is happening around us now needs more vigilant attention than what is coming out now at the Lagos Airport. Let us urgently call the disruptive unions to order. Let them carry their grievances to the offices of their employer and not to the passengers terminal building,” he said.
However, the minister of aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, assured that the strike won’t happen anymore, saying the action was wrong, inhuman and against the law.
Sirika explained that the FAAN Act signed into law by President Buhari in 2022 prohibits industrial action and riots in the aviation sector.
He said, “This is very important to the traveling public. First we apologize to them, our teeming passengers in this difficult moment.
“Secondly, this will not happen in the future by the grace of God. And the reason is simple, aviation is an essential service, the Act has been assented to by Mr. President, so strikes and riots around our airports are prohibited by the laws of the land.
“Now that we have the Act in place and assented to by Mr President and passed by the National Assembly, we will deal with it according to the law.
“We will ensure no essential service is being disrupted by anybody no matter how aggrieved. There are other channels of channeling issues when they arise but they are not permitted to go on strike because aviation is an essential service and is by the law of the land now.
“I will give you an example, there was an airline that had to return to base because it couldn’t land. Imagine if there was a patient on that aircraft? Imagine somebody attending to a very serious issue or matter at hand or business or a student trying to catch up with a exam and then because of somebody who is aggrieved some other person will die.
“Government will no longer allow that. So it’s in the law of the land, check the FAAN Act, it’s been assented to and it’s going to take place soon, in fact now, from today we will not allow that.
“As government our ears are always open, government is open to listen to any grievances and there are procedures for dealing with this kind of grievances. They should please desist from this, it is wrong, it is inhuman, it is not allowed, it is not permitted and we will not be permitting any longer.”
